Although there have been several basketball players who have used boxing training to better themselves on the floor, including Real Madrid's Guerschon Yabusele, there is a reason that the sweet science is rarely used as a metaphor for basketball.
One is a team sport, where five players work together on the floor with seven more potential reserves to spell them. The other is mano a mano, two combatants alone leaving it all in the ring. In basketball, there are 40 minutes to use wisely and a team can rally from a deficit through strategy or stamina. In boxing, a knockout punch can end a bout at any given second.
But for today, let’s focus on another reason. The best basketball teams are focused on the goal at hand, but over the course of a game or season, that focus can wander. The key is to focus in again during the key moments. In boxing, if you lose focus for a second, you could wind up dazed on the mat, knocked out.
The Round 34 duel between Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv and Real Madrid is a contest between true EuroLeague heavyweights with rich histories who will be dividing their desire to win with split focusses on Thursday.
Both teams have already locked up their playoff participation, but neither has secured a final spot in the standings. Moreover, neither team controls its destiny; other games being played at the same time could affect the final positioning. And that final position could find Real in second place and Maccabi in seventh… or Real in third and Maccabi in sixth.
In both of those scenarios, these two teams would reconvene again in 10 days for Game 1 of the playoffs. And rest assured, both Real’s head coach Chus Mateo and his Maccabi counterpart Oded Kattash will wish to keep some of their tricks and strategies in their back pockets before a potential playoff showdown.